Sourav Arora, that I knew! We will miss you Sourav…

The tall, handsome yet shy, soft spoken, desirous of learning, willingness to put that extra effort, still, with an amount of self doubt, trying to find the better way ahead was Sourav Arora. Though emotional, as I got to know, his outwardly projection of smile and softness was anti-thesis of his well built physique. He was a gentle-giant.

His desire to improve himself was manifested in his sending his write-ups to me on issues of interest to him, seeking my feedback. He would not let go of it, if I did not respond. Whenever I came back from my tour, the moment he spotted me, he would remind me that he is waiting for the feedback on a particular article that he had sent.

When on Sunday afternoon, I received information about sudden demise of Sourav, I went through my journey of life of last two years that I have known Sourav – from my first interaction in Ludhiana to the graduation ceremony at IWSB that I photographed while he was awarded the degree.

I pay my humble respects to his departed soul and also pray to almighty to give all strength to his parents and family to withstand and overcome the grief of the loss. God bless.

Sourav receiving the degree

Daring to be sitting in front

Saurabh at the batch farewell

Saurabh at the batch farewell

sitting with friends – outbound 2011

helping as always – lifting the bench – outbound 2011

Being at the back, yet supporting

At times sticking his neck out to lead

Ready to tango

I pray that each one us has strength to face the reality and have confidence in oneself.

“Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.” – William James

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option” – gabrielita

Lovingly,
sreeni

http://www.sreeni.org

——————– Tribute by batchmate —————– Raj Kumar Gupta

Today, 7th May 2012, 9:00AM, while entering at IWSB gate, I came across a shocking news. One of our batch mate and a lovely friend Saurabh Arora is no more with us. I could not digest the news, but Rajeev told me that it is true. All those moments of last two years, when Saurabh was with us, were in my eyes, flowing with tears. I can easily recall first meeting with him, first argument , first hug , first drink and first TT match with him and all those memorable moments when he was happy N sad. I can recall that how he sweated during presentation, how much he was happy, when he got his first job and when he got increment in his salary and when he got Ludhiyana posting. He was very dedicated person. He accepted all mistakes and guilty. He wanted to be a fit person and he was. He was never a follower of ego, He always believed in us.

He was emotional too. Very often I found him very emotional for his parents, for his friend.

I can only say about Saurabh that he had strong physique and pure heart.

May god give strength to his members and his soul rest in Peace!!!!Farewell

We’ll miss you!!!
————————————————-By Arun Kumar Mourya, Batchmate

You were an amazing friend to me and lovable guy by all.

Though you are not physically with us but you will be alive in our prayers, hearts and mind. I truly believe wherever you are you will always spread happiness around you and create a pleasant atmosphere.

Though your journey with us was too short but it was the most pleasant experience for each one of us.
————————————————-By Syed Inamullarsh Qadri, batchmate
How can I so easily forget a person with whom I spent two precious years of my life….

Person whom I met first time and felt he is living in his own world, but actually a hesitant to interact with an unknown at first place. Strong, athletic and manly one wishes to be, but still gentle, sober and shy. Typical food lover of Parathas and Punjabi music, smart in casuals but strikingly elegant in formals, that was our beloved Sourav.

His always smiling face and portraying himself as a mature but actually curious to learn always will be remembered by me. His favourite line, to overshadow his own childish heart, was, “Grow Up” which he used to say lot of times to many people.

I remember his summer internship presentation when he sweated heavily, but the effort he had put to bring perfection in it was tremendous. His joy crossed all limits when he got placed. Always ready to help known or unknown persons.

He use to get involved with heart and soul in any task, evidently the repetition of song tracks in the hostel room he use to replay for hours and days. While I am writing this tribute in his memory, his photo with bull horns on his head with Vicky and Tarun revolves in front of my eyes.

On papers Sourav was my roommate in the first year. On the very first day when he entered GN Hostel room he seems in haste and left his luggage there and then left the room himself. In the evening he came back, his first full long sentence with me was’ “I am going to change my room and stay with my friend in ground floor”. Although I didn’t asked the reason for his decision but he excused himself with sentence that amused me, “yaar mein apni chhezun kaa dhaan nahi rakhta hun, Vicky rakhega.” I guess it was meant not to offend me. I felt that guy was emotionally attached to his friends. He never wanted to leave the one whom he loved. He always felt comfortable in company of his close friends.

Nothing to comment on his step he took but, yes he created a scar on the cheerful memories that we all had with IWSB for two precious years. He will be always remembered for his untimely death in our chats and write ups.

“Do what you love, Love whatever you do” – R.Sreenivasan, Director IWSB : Welcome address at the Convocation 2012

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

Distinguished guests, students of the Class of 2012, parents and all the family members of the Graduating Class, members of the IWSB Board, the media, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the IWSB’s Third Convocation and Graduation Ceremony.   At the outset, I would like to welcome our Chief Guest, Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.com. I welcome, one and all present here, this evening.

——–

The pioneer of online travel in India, Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip in April, 2000. Drawing on his experience from his years at GE Capital, AMF Bowling Inc. and ABN AMRO Bank, under his stewardship, MakeMyTrip has become the largest online travel company, as well as the largest e-commerce business in India.

Deep is a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM and chairs the NASSCOM Internet Working Group. He is also a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and serves on the Board of TiE, New Delhi. Deep is also a member of CII’s Tourism sub-committee and a regular speaker at numerous internet and travel conferences across the world. He currently serves as an independent Director for IndiaMart.com, a leading B2B website. Deep is also a founding member of “I am Gurgaon”, an NGO focused on the improving the quality of life in Gurgaon.

Deep holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (1990), and a MBA (PGDM) degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1992). His interests include adventure sports, swimming, yoga, quizzing and traveling to places off the beaten path.

Deep is one of the faces of the transformational India and it is an honour and a privilege to have him with us today. I welcome you Sir, as the Chief Guest of today’s occasion.
———-

 

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

I would also like to welcome our Chairman, R.Satya Narayanan, Vice-chairman Mr. Gautam Puri and Members of the IWSB Board who have come down specially to be with us today. Thank you all for coming.

It is a very special moment for us with 59 students of the Class of 2012 graduating today. The students at the IWSB have a very pivotal role to play in the progress of the school and the Class of 2012 have shouldered their responsibility in an excellent manner. I would like to highlight some of the achievements of the last academic year.

 

CURRICULUM

Our focus at IWSB has been to offer a curriculum that stokes entrepreneurial thinking and leadership, and also in tune with the fast changing global business trends and this has been one of our significant strengths. Our students benefit from this exposure and the industry values this a lot.

We have had over hundred entrepreneurial leaders coming to the campus during their two years as part of our ‘My Journey series’ every week. Each one, when they experienced the incisive questioning about minute details of running business by students, during the interactions and Q&A, have always asked me and our faculty, what do we do to foster this kind of spirit among students? Thanks to the faculty who have made this happen.

Some of the notable new courses offered to the students this year include  -Financial Engineering, Managing Entrepreneurial Firms and Family Business, International Marketing, Retail Management.

NEN, National Entrepreneurship Network, has selected IWSB as their academic incubation campus for designing new programs. IWSB and NEN are working closesly on this front for the coming academic year.

Also the TYE, The young entrepreneurs program, with TIE that is designed and executed by IWSB has successfully completed its second year. We are in talks to offering this to the college going youth too across the country where we will technology to a great extent.

IWSB continues to use technology to aid teaching. We have extensively used WEBINARs as the means to reach to vast student population across the country in facilitating understanding of business and entrepreneurship. We have significant road map ahead in this direction.

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

The Curriculum Review Committee, chaired by Academic Dean, Prof. Veeresh Sharma will soon release a draft of their recommendations that are currently being reviewed by faculty, area leaders and others. We hope to have the final recommendation of the committee in the next couple of weeks and we wish to implement in the coming academic year.

ENTREPRENEURIAL Endeavors and companies on Campus

We have been very delighted to have quite a few entrepreneurial talent on the campus. Our 2012 graduating batch saw –

–         JMD Pratza by kanu Mangotra in the food space

–         Arete Investors by Rishab Pruthi, Gaurav and Kriti Kankani

–         NOW by Sumeet Sharma, Arpit Kala in the convenience shopping

–         Antral by Sumit Gunjan and Arvind in education

and

–         Maharani by Anurag from the first year  in handicrafts exports

I am sure we will see many more emerging in the coming year

 

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

FACULTY

IWSB has been able to make a mark among the Young B-schools (IIMA research report of last year) in the short span of time, only because of outstanding faculty. Each of our faculty bring with them a deep passion and commitment to facilitating and bringing the best out of our students. They walk the talk. We have faculty like, Prof Navneet, who runs an integrated Marketing communication firm on the campus. We have entrepreneurial faculty to facilitate entrepreneurial students.

Our recent faculty achievements and publications in top ranked journals, by Prof Raju Mazumdar in finance area, Case publication of Prof Krishna in marketing, are testimony to the excellence that we pursue in business education.

Our permanent faculty figure stands at 14 and have had equal number of visiting scholars too who have contributed immensely to every student who is graduating from IWSB.

India Immersion Program and Exchange programs

IWSB is getting recognized as No.1 entrepreneurial campus in India and abroad too. Apart from NEN naming IWSB among the top 7 entrepreneurial campus for the third year running, world class business schools are touching down at IWSB campus. We have had informal exchange agreements for this year with a couple overseas universities and corporate bodies on India Immersion, which we will be formalizing this year. We should have about half a dozen of these agreements in the coming year for Student, Faculty exchange and research initiatives.

We have hosted two universities –

• State University of New York, with 18 students and faculty;
• University Leadership team from San Diego State

On corporate leadership front in India Immersion, we have hosted –

• A dozen business leaders from Hitachi, Japan
• Leaders Quest brings Five hundred BCG consultants to India that Satya and I would address, of whom 15 will invest a day with our students on April 23 and 24 this year. I am looking forward to the batch on the campus and also Alumni, including this graduating batch to take advantage of this program

We are working on introducing FIELD program modules across the two years, of which this year, they started with Live projects/ The Experiential Learning Programme, that provided students an opportunity to work for companies, apart from the typical internship programme. All of the participating companies have reported a high customer satisfaction. Many of these projects are implemented. Our students continue to work on projects for not-for-profit organizations with similarly great results.

EVENTS

Events at IWSB serve multi purpose objectives. The students augment their class room learning with several learning events outside the classroom. The various student clubs organised events like the –

–         Shodhyatras

–         Eduthon: A 10Km Run for educating underprivileged

–         Rangmanch – The dramatics society

–         IWPL – The Sports Club

–         Tasveer- The Art and Culture Society

–         Blood donation camps

The enthusiastic celebrations of events like Holi, Dandia, Diwali, Krishnashtami and painting competitions brought the entire IWSB community together as a family.

E-Bootcamp, which we launched last year, will be an annual tradition for the School along with the Annual Business Plan competition, Srijan.

These events serve as a platform for the students to interact with industry leaders, and academicians apart from interacting with contemporaries from other institutions.

AWARDS

Our students and alumni participated in several national and international competitions and have brought laurels to the school. Notable mentions include

–         Jaydeep (Alum PG10) – A winner at IIT Mumbai, has been invited for Stanford University’s Social entrepreneurship Summit in April

–         Anurag – Business plan competitions at IIT Kanpur, Mumbai and a few other places

I congratulate each one of you for your efforts and success.

The IWSB Excellence Scholars symbolize the extraordinary ability, leadership, commitment and quality of participation of the PGP students in the IWSB campus life. I congratulate each one of them for a well-deserved recognition.

PLACEMENTS

The IWSB graduates continue to script new success stories as far as placements go. The increased interest amongst young and fast growing companies, who see IWSB graduates as tailor-made for them, and also increase in leading national and international recruiters, is a testament to the rich entrepreneurial leadership talent at the school.

As is the news, a couple of our students will be placed internationally.

A formal announcement on the placements, once completed in the next couple of weeks, will be made. I would like to thank our friends in the industry for their continued association with the school.

CONCLUSION

While we have made considerable progress on several fronts, being a school in infancy, we still have a long way to go. The Board and industry have been a solid source of support in our work. The Faculty – Resident and the Visiting Faculty have contributed significantly to the development of the school. The resident faculty and management staff at the IWSB have always stood out with their innovative ideas and dedication in building this school. I look forward to building on these contributions.

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

Now a few words for the graduating class –

I congratulate each one of you for completing the two arduous years successfully at the IWSB. I do hear many of you sharing, how these two years have been transformational. I still can vividly recall the outbound we went two years ago on our induction program as you all entered the institution. Congratulations to the Scholars of Excellence and those who have made it to the Awards List too. We are very proud of you. I wish you all the best as you embark on the journey of realizing your dreams. As you set about charting new career paths, I urge all of you to pursue what you enjoy and enjoy whatever you pursue. I am sure you will be of immense value to the organizations that you contribute and also to the society at large. You are, and will always be, an integral part of the IWSB family, and we look forward to sharing in the joys of your accomplishments as corporate leaders, entrepreneurial leaders and worthy citizens of this world.

I leave you with a quote from our ancient literature –

“You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

And I quote Swami Vivekananda –

“Just believe in yourself, the world will be at your feet”

I look forward to seeing you all again and again on the campus! When the new batch walks in, we wish to have all our Alumni for the re-union sometime in October! I am sure I will see you all being there sharing your experiences and insights with the new batch.

Our wishes and love with you all, for ever!

Thank you.

“Once you figure out what is your MOZZO! You will make it” – Mr. Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.com @ 3rd convocation 2012, IWSB

Deep Kalra, Founder MakeMyTrip.com, Guest of honour for 3rd Convocation at IWSB is being felicitated by the Dean - Acads, Prof Veeresh Sharma

I commend and congratulate the faculty for creating the environment, that has seen these youngsters blossom and take off.

I also congratulate Parents! You need to be proud of your young wards that are going to make a difference to the world.

It is a special day when Tendulkar got his hundredth hundred. You will remember your special day. You will look back with contentment and joy. Some of you were so eager, that you wanted to grab the certificate from me or even forgot to get the photo clicked. Keep that enthusiasm going!

Satya and I have some karmic connect. We both started at the same time. I got to know that we graduated from the same institution, St. Stephen’s college, just a year apart! Then our connection at TIE and today, I am here.

This is the second convocation ceremony I am attending. The first one was when I passed out of IIMA! Today is a special day for me too, as I am giving my first convocation address as a chief guest.

At the end of this ceremony, flinging of your caps will happen. Is this the culmination or a beginning?

It is the beginning of your career, in one of the brightest times of India. You have had wonderful two years on IWSB campus – going through the grind, ups and downs – courses, my journey interactions with over 100 leaders and so on.. You are experiencing a WOW moment now!

It is an opportune time for me to share a few lessons that I have learnt thus far, which could be of value to you in your journey ahead –

• Learning never stops.
  • Formal education may have, but the amount you learn from your peers, colleagues, market place and environment would continue. You need to be keen. You need to figure out every moment, the secrets of success and keep incorporating in your script as you travel.

• Discover what makes you tick, what makes you happy.
  • The sooner you realize the sooner you make it happen. People talk about ‘getting into the zone’.
  • Before parents get worried, chart your untreaded path. It took me eight years to figure out what I want to. And here I am in front of you. Had I not found out my ‘love’, perhaps I would not have been here sharing my learning.
  • Create opportunities and grab opportunities. If you do what you really love, sky is the limit. Once you figure out what is your ‘Mozza’, you will make it.
  • It is not necessary that you have to become an entrepreneur. I do see a few of you are keen. You can use your degree as a noose or as a ropeway to higher goals. There are many of my classmates who have joined big corporates – one of my batch mates will soon be a CEO of Wipro. Finding your calling is the key.
• Life ahead will get tougher. I keep promising my family that I will slow down. But the journey becomes so exciting that you get hooked on.
  • Next 10 years you should look forward to work hard and sweat it out. Gather whatever you can to strengthen your armory.
  • Subsequent 10 years you will start working smarter along being harder.
  • Then perhaps being smarter will suffice
• READING is the key
  • I keep reading and re-reading. Do not give up. Books like ‘Seven Habits of highly effective people, I must have read a dozen times. Every reading as I progress in life makes a new meaning. I keep applying in new ways and in new places too.
• Value of Analytics
  • In the businessworld and the decision support systems that you will create or use, Analytics will play a very important role. You use analytics all the time to understand behaviours and create opportunities. You should focus on it. Every one has got data! How you analyze and make a meaning out of it will derive and drive your business.
• Resilience Vs Stubbornness – Back yourself and your instincts
  • There is a fine line between the two. There have been at least two occasions in my early years of MakeMyTrip, that I thought of hanging up my towel.- 9/11 happened and SARS followed. The travel world collapsed. Tough times they were. We kept going…
  • If I look at people around me, Satya (founder CL Educate); or Sanjeev Bikhchandani (founder Naukri), who delivered last years Convocation address here at IWSB, all have the same trait – of bouncing back with passion and perseverance.
  • Back yourself and your instincts – Be yourself. It may take a little longer, but you will reach your path and the journey will continue to be wonderful one.

I would like to conclude this precious address by quoting one of my favourites – Jeff Bejos, The founder of Amazon –

“WORK HARD! HAVE FUN! MAKE HISTORY! TWO OUT OF THREE IS NOT AN OPTION”

Best of luck!

Subodh Raheja, inspiring inventor and innovator ignited the young minds – My Journey @ IWSB

Change Makers @ My Journey - Subodh Raheja, innovator, lit by his solar innovations

Subodh Raheja is an inspiration to be with. When I met him a few weeks ago I just got taken in by his outlook towards life and surroundings. He is an inventor and innovator at heart and in deed too. If someone says, “It is impossible,” he gets challenged and cannot wait till he finds a solution to the problem being faced.

I was very keen that all young entrepreneurial leaders at IWSB campus should experience him and his way of looking at the world. Subodh, in his journey of over two decades as an inno-preneur has contributed remarkably for the society by his innovations in the space of power and lighting – inverters, solar and wind power.

This evening Subodh was at IWSB campus to interact with the youngsters and share his journey and also to challenge them. Here I typed his interaction as it happened, and you will see the narration in the first person.
—————————————————————————————-

Education is all about broadening horizons and excelling. Today I will share my 32 years of experience as how I kept discovering myself.

It is not about that you started in science, commerce or arts and continued to be in the same space. If you are a keen learner, you can find huge possibilities. I know of a person who started as a graduate in humanities, but went on to do medicine and excel as a doctor.

My principal in school, Mr Kapoor always said and also made us feel that, “if you really want to, you can.” When I reached the middle school, I was moved to a section that had toppers, and I performed badly. Mr Kapoor came to me and said, “what stops you from being a topper”. That small interaction made such a difference to me. It became the guiding principle for my life.

Change Makers @ My Journey - Subodh Raheja, innovator and his solar street light

My family does not have any business background. He came from West-Pakistan, though fore-fathers had printing business. My grandfather was a teacher, he went on to do social services, serving people and educating masses. After partition, he came to India and due to his academic excellence he was called into planning commission.

After my schooling, I was in quite a fix – whether to go into medicine or something else. I did cleared pre-medical test. But, father was not keen, as he felt it takes longer time to establish my career. So, I decided to move away. I was not clear what to do. I applied for various courses. Finally took Physics honours… then did my post-grad, then MTech. Worked for about 9 years… Then finally thought of taking plunge into business, why my father was about to retire.

During my education, there were a couple of learning curves and inflections. While in the post-graduation, I was made the secretary of the students club and I used to interact with eminent scientists like Dr. Raja Ramanna. I anchored a trip to Kota atomic power plant of our class. It was an eye-opener. It helped us to think, work and leave a mark. For the first time we moved out of the university. When we are onto something, and we jump headlong, then we realize the challenges – like here, getting permissions, logistics, reservations, food, stay etc. These things trigger thoughts and realizations about our capabilities. So it always helps to be in the thick of activities while studying and push ones boundaries.

Change Makers @ My Journey - Subodh Raheja, innovator with his complete home solution, that has two lights and charger for mobiles

I got opportunities to travel and meet scientists nationally and internationally. Today, Internet is helping us to reduce gaps, but it depends on how we make use of it. In our days nothing of these sorts was there. We needed to go through challenges – importing would cost us duties of 200-300% etc.

Once I got an opportunity to interact with Science and defense laboratories in India, and abroad too, I found huge gaps internationally and also with in India too. Once I did my Management from DU, I realized that we could build capabilities and capacities within India. We can bridge the gap. That is when I was seriously contemplating about “Should I start something on my own.”

Power was a challenge in those days, so power stabilization and management was the thought that struck me. I thought of an inverter. People laughed at my idea. It was in 1985-86. I thought of MOS-FET technologies, as I was reading literature. We came out with inverter based on MOSFET. That kept me busy for a couple of years.

While I was going through this product, a lot of commercialization had to be done. I inducted a few into the distribution network. About 10 of them were spread across. I used to train and send them to different offices.

During the process of supplying invertors to SONY India limited, SONY had a plan to come and set up a factory in India. They were designing their factory in India. The consultants locally were taking them on a royal ride. I told them how it could be done in an interaction. I was asked to scribble on board my thought and idea and explain. It was extempore. They just saved it and faxed to their headquarters in Japan. After a wait of a couple of hours, they immediately asked me to be their consultant on their setting up project.

In five months, I had to deliver and with complete involvement, I delivered the solution within the stipulated time. Many more farmhouses happened after this project.

While I was away on these projects, my personal production set up went through a lot of turmoil and losses mounted, as the team that was handling the operations mis-managed the business and I had close it down. It was a big set back.

Since I had interest in product creation, I used that as a business model. Creating new contraptions gave me a thrill. I started focusing on it. So, Voltage stabilizer + Inverter 90v to 300v for those coming from hinterland. I was coming out with solutions for challenges people have been facing in the power space.

Since 1994, defense has been seeking solutions. All the junked sources of power was repaired. Army VSAT systems in the remote parts of the country was powered by my solutions. Eg. –

– Earth quake in Bhuj is a case

o Army commander called me, and said ‘yours was the only supply that stood the shocks all others including from the big MNCs failed!!

o I was told to supply for Siachin, Arunachal etc…

– In Arunachal, where you will have to go for days walking to reach the spots. We created sturdy ones that are still in use

Marketing has been my weakest link. Different people have been coming to me with their requirements and I have been solving their problems. But never have been able to scale this up, as I was not interested much in doing so.

Then maintaining UPS across Government came my way. But there are many ‘Undertaking’ and ‘overtaking’ happening!! It was a struggle.

Change Makers @ My Journey - Subodh Raheja, innovation for rural doctors - light to operate

There was another period of struggle during 2003-2006 when father was ill, when I could not devote much time for business and it was ebbing. This gave my a great lesson, “You should not lose heart, one should be strong enough to face the challenge”. For paying the fees of children, I had to take loan. I sailed through the challenges.

While I was developing and doing business here, I got an opportunity to work with a US firm called HEART INTERFACE. They were working with inverters for solar systems. That was the breakthrough I got in Solar space. This was in 1994. All those who were in Solar companies used to buy circuits from me. I started handling their business in India. This company went on to buy many companies. I used supply to BEL, Central electronics etc.

All these companies are world class. Anyone who had to set up anything would have to go to any of these companies, and these companies would come to me. We did work in Zaire, Morocco, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.. They used to come to me for the design, while they handled the installation.

What we are today, is totally a different platform from where we started. We started with inverter and UPS. Now it has become the second line of business while Solar has become the first.

Solar is an alternate source of energy. You can generate energy from roof-top. Since the components were costlier they were not being used as often. But it is now economical. We can create hybrid Solar + Wind + Electricity supplied + DG set,

in that order of usage. We can create design wherein DG set can also get started automatically.

Let me give you a brief about Products that we make –

1. Solar charge controllers
1. Through Central Electronics, Moser Bier etc
2. Idea came from customer
3. One should not go beyond 40V DC, if any human comes in touch it, it can be fatal.
4. High voltage charge controllers can give charge for storing for 8 hours
5. BHEL uses extensively, at the top, is our inverter
6. Railways uses our Charge controller extensively

2. Second series is home lighting. Especially started from Bangladesh
1. Small home light at 3000Rs can give sufficient light
2. If some one is keen on taking it as an entrepreneurial, you can take it
3. Similarly solar torches and lanterns

3. Solar pumps – surface pumps, booster pumps up to 30 HP. Only company in the world
1. One petrol pump needs for dispensing – 1.5 HP pump
2. With 300v solar power, by replacing 1.5HP, installing small invertors, connecting to the battery and solar panel
3. They wanted me to prove it and sent me to a place called Mahavir ji, PAHADI

i. I never saw so many stars there

ii. I used batteries of cars

iii. Absolutely no electricity in the village

iv. We could work only till 11am and start at 4pm again as the afternoons are very hot at 50+degree

v. That petrol pump is still using our solution

vi. Some how since we have done only for government, it did not go beyond

4. Solar air-conditioners – 1KV – 1-1.5 tonne – for telecom towers

1. They have now selected this product from African markets
2. This is something which we would like to take more places in India too
3. Thisswas my next project

5. Water purification is the next project. Our principals have developed a portable solar panel array. This can be taken to anywhere – pump in the river or raw water. That gives 99% pure water. River waters can be of value especially when there are disasters

6. Trozen battery is another product, we have just introduced. This has the capability of deep discharges. It has a life of 80 years. It is used in UPS / Invertor market. Presently 98% of electric vehicles use Trozan batteries.

Q&A –

Q. In a day, for how many hours a solar panel can charge effectively?

1. Since the sun’s intensity is different during the day… the wattage varies from 0-12 at various times. It is absorption of light that gives energy. For full wattage it gives five hours of output
2. It is the capacity of the panel and battery that drives the duration
3. Bulbs are not manufactured in India, though now a few or available in India. Solid state. Diode – Direct power. If diode characteristics changed – light emitting diode we can use many ways. A few diodes can go on for 50K years

Q. What are the other exciting innovations?

· Streetlight – Heat dissipation has to be taken care of. The light is very strong and you cannot see it with naked eye.
· Solar cooler – with only 20watts of power
· Name plate – Imagine CAR nameplates glowing during the nights. How much it can reduce the challenges of Police
· Solar switch…. Usually we see wastage of electricity during the day. Solar switch created to switch on and off as per the brightness. It has been bought by Moradabad electricity for streetlights, then Delhi government bought it. Sensor will sense and switch on and off
· Sound triggered light, especially at night when there is some sound it will glow. You can use it the moment you wake up by making a sound.
· Public toilets and bathrooms – sensing lights and fans that can save energy wastage
· Fans – Sold at about 1000Rs in the market; Extensively used by pavement vendors.
· Solution to mosquito menace.
· Right now working on a solution for Coke. Invertors for freezers in the Rural space..

The moment some one comes and say, this is not possible. I get interested in it.

1. created Motor pump – at 300 watts when the gentleman challenged me to make one for anything less than 500 watts…

2. Billboard lighting….

3. Lighting homes in the remote areas…

Doing job is fine, but you are at others disposal. But, if you really love something, just jump and do. You need to know about everything in the business – laws, finances, and so much more that you need to know.

When I left job, first few months were difficult – finalizing the product, marketing it. The moment the inverter took off, I never looked back. I have done so many things… We were the first to introduce paging, traffic lights in Delhi – police department said you can make money (but never that happened), solar booths at traffic signals – Moolchand, Ashram, Bhikaji Cama place..

We came out with many products and ideas –
· Telecom towers – MPPT controller that gives 30% extra power in the worst environmental conditions. It is very rugged. It is the heart of the equipment…

Q.Water purifier – how is it better than any one else? It is the same unit but how do you charge and help the charge to be retained in harsh conditions so that it can continue to purify.

Q. Marketing problems – What are the ones you are facing?
· We do have skeletal marketing team.
· We do special types of projects
· We are looking for creating networks. The trozan battery is unmatchable. Cyclic batteries that are the demand of telecom companies or international operators
· They have application everywhere – in invertors and electric vehicles

Q. Any thing for Automobiles?
· Dippers sense light from on-coming traffic, it dips whenever oncoming traffic is spotted. This helps a better driving.

Q. In Punjab most of the towers use DG. Do you have any solutions.
· We have the solution but many of them do not use it. Why? We need to ask them..
· We are anyways moving from capex model to Opex model in the towers…

Q. Cost of photo-voltaic systems are costly. In India in central and eastern India we need a lot of electricity. Is there some way that we can get economical solution?
· For a starter, think small and think about mass
· My focus is on electronics
· We have suppliers like BTW to set up mega plants

The discussions moved on to demonstration of his inventions and innovations.

At the end of the session, the challenge of working and creating the sales and marketing strategy and its execution for the company Manak Engineering was thrown at the young entrepreneurs. I am waiting for a few to take it up.

It was an inspiring session and I felt charged to take the challenge.

I had more time interacting with Subodh and his family while I drove with them all the way back. I will treasure this evening for lifetime.

sreeni@iwsb.in

My Journey @ IWSB with young music-preneur Sumit Kumar Singh

Sumit with his didgeridoo at IWSB

Sumit, an alumnus of IITD and IIML, is a multi-faceted personality. He is very passionate about preservation, revival and promotion of Indian musical instruments and Indian art forms that are on the verge of becoming extinct. He enjoys playing more than a dozen instruments. Apart from music, he loves photography. He works in the strategy group of BOC.

He has spanned small businesses in the space of exclusive TEA retailing, exquisite candle making apart from revival of Musical instruments – one of the endeavors is Didgeridoo makers. He is one of the prime movers behind the popular Delhi Drum Circle that meets every fortnight at the Deer park, Hauz khas in Delhi to jam.

Sumit not only shared his journey with the young entrepreneurial leaders but also jammed with a few DDC regulars at the IWSB Drum Circle. The young members, ranging from 3 year-olds to 10 years-olds, at the school run by Society for Empowerment through Education, on the IWSB campus really enjoyed the drumming circle.

India is bestowed with such a variety of musical instruments each from a cultural milieu.

In Manali – we have seven day long festival of Diwali
– Jab we met song was pictured in manali
– I picked up Tibetan peace bell
o Rotating around will give a long resounding sound
– Science behind is amazing

North-east – yak and rhino horns used for making a few instruments and precious artifacts. We need to be careful not to promote poaching. As long as they are made out of dead ones, it is fine.

When we see a gap, why do not we do it?

Corporates are paying a lot for outbound, team building. Can we extend it to rural travel, arts and culture? Experiencing them through packaging is the key. Didgeridoo makers on facebook have about 1000 fans. About 15 of Didgeridoo are being made at any given time. These are made in the Haridwar-Rishikesh belt. Each artisan working gets about 30-40K. This revenue funds their livelihood.

could you share a little about the TEA business

There are five grades of tea
– white tea – Rs. 80 K per kg – organic is Rs. 1.5 lakh a kg
o Herbal is infused kind of tea
– Yellow tea – sun dried
– Orange peco – 5K per kg
– Black tea and green tea – almost similar : How it is processed
o Liquor formation
o Furnace
o Anti-oxidant
– CTC is the cheapest tea

We package exclusive herbal tea.

Where do all these things fit?

I am good at sales. We need to do a fair trade Tea channel. Tea is always auctioned. India from being a net vegetable of exporter has become net vegetable importer. We see that the middleman is the investor.

I need to understand the psyche of the vendor in chawri-bazaar. Get the deepest insights. You are dependent on his knowledge.

Relationship building and customer delight

Wax cannot withstand the July temp. We had to change everything – blends. Once, on order, I sold 6 candles at 6000 each. I had to be redo and send again, since the receiver received broken candle

If you build the relationships and be trustworthy, he is more than happy to help. Local level officers and linkers you connect and make them happy facilitators…

IWSB – Realizing the Unlimited potential within, a set on Flickr.

Let me wind up this note by giving a link to one of the videos on YOUTUBE of Sumit sharing about an instrument and performing.

sreeni@iwsb.in

outbound 2011 – induction of pg13 @ IWSB, knowing thyself!

Outbound 2011 – inducting pg13 @ IWSB – Knowing thyself, a set on Flickr.

The academic year of pg13 started with pre-term, of which the outbound module is a very enabling one for the new learners on the campus, as much as the old and seasoned ones….

Along with Vivek of great escapes and Satya, the outbound was planned meticulously to give each participant an experience worth remembering for life time, for what they will gain from the exercises that they would go through. It all depends on ones own eagerness to explore, introspect and learn. To that extent, even though exercises were designed to put every one through similar situations, the take-away will be very different for each one, depending on the conscious investment one makes in the entire process.

Entire entourage set to drive in a couple of buses and cars late in the evening. As Satya wanted to test his car in the hilly terrains, we both found ourselves leading the cavalcade by an hour ahead by the time we were out of Delhi. The gap kept on increasing as we hit the foothills and we reach Bhimtaal by 3:40am, well ahead of the scheduled arrival of about 7am. So we parked the vehicle by the roadside and had a few winks by the time the bus reached the winding roads of the hills. Reaching the Saat Taal half an hour before the buses arrived, we refreshed ourselves to receive the battalion, with unique ‘wake up call’…. push ups the moment they disembarked the buses. This shook many out of the slumber and for the uninitiated this would have given the hint of things to come by…

The climb to the camp on the top of the hill overlooking the saat taal, with the backpacks on our backs, was a real test of ones strength and stamina. With my Camera bag also tugging along, it took some effort from me too as the innumerable tours that I undertook in the last 8-9 months threw spanner on my physical fitness regularity. I realized how unfit I had become. I discovered that I have put on about 5 kgs during this sedentary period, though not sedentary due to criss-crossing the country, yet sedentary in physical fitness terms.. This has made me lazier!! This outbound was a wake-up call for me too!!

As usual, the hectic three days had a lot of excitement, beginning with induction of the new entrants to IWSB value system and integration of the new hearts, bodies and souls with the entire ecosystem of the institution, and facilitating the others to introspect and offer themselves for greater responsibilities towards themselves, the community and the society at large. As we could see, we have been able to succeed to some extent, hopefully it will grow on each one of us. The facilitation and exercises took various forms like – group activities like football exchanges, tent pegging, kayaking, handicap treks, musical and cultural evenings around bonfires; the individual pushing of boundaries happened through rock climbing, rappling, zummaring, river crossing, flying fox, kayaking, swimming etc. The new members also bonded with each other very well when they were thrown a challenge of making a meal on the last day.

Yes, there have been a few taken-for-granted behaviours that did detract from the effectiveness of the program, but I am sure the realizations since then would serve each and every one good for life time.

Personally, my learning included –

a. I will be healthy and physically fit by pushing boundaries more and more even during my daily life
b. I will be part of every action and contribute to every cause irrespective of experience; work with enthusiasm as if I am doing it for the first time, even though I might have done many times over
c. I will be serious about every thing I do. No work is small or big
d. I am capable of finding new ways of engaging, even though the activity may look apparently old
e. So many more boundaries to be pushed, so many more capabilities to be explored…I will continue to do it..

There is so much within. Even when we feel that we are completely exhausted, we have so much in our storage…. if only we can dig deep and push ourselves…

I have but one life…

Sreeni@iwsb.in

kindly follow this set for more updates of pg13

IWSB featured in “The theory and practice of rearing businessmen”, Economic Times, INDIA EMERGING, FEB 11,2011, Page 15

Colleges are discovering a great opportunity in educating entrepreneurs and incubating companies. Radhika P Nair and Peerzada Abrar find out more.

Economic Times, Feb 11, 2011, Page 15: Straight from the gut - Satya; IWSB in Theory and Practice of rearing Businessmen

WHEN it comes to educating future entrepreneurs, “catch them young” seems to be the reigning philosophy. While many of the top management and technology institutes in the country, like the IIMs and IITs, have set up incubation centres and introduced electives that cover aspects of entrepreneurship, tier-II and tier-III colleges are the ones who have turned to entrepreneurship education in a big way.

In fact, there is a move to inculcate entrepreneurship even in school children. The National Entrepreneurship Network (NeN), a non-profit organisation that helps develop entrepreneurship education system at academic institutions all over the country, conducts an annual Entrepreneurship Week, or Eweek, across colleges in the country. This year, they brought it to schools as well and got school students to try the “50 exercise”.

Originated at Stanford, this game involves teams of students coming up with an idea, forming a company on paper and investing a maximum of 50 (not real currency) in the company. At the end of the half-day exercise, they see what they have earned and learned.

Ahmedabad’s Satyameva Jayate International School (SJIS) teaches entrepreneurship to even six year-olds. Hina Shah, the founder and director of SJIS, said they use specially designed modules to teach the children.

However, can entrepreneurship actually be taught in a classroom? And, have these entrepreneurship courses produced entrepreneurs?

FOCUS ON PRACTICAL TRAINING
Bangalore-based MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) is one of the many institutes that have started focusing on entrepreneurship as a viable option for its students. “We give importance to practical aspects of enterprise as courses tend to focus only on theory,” said K Rajanikanth, principal, MSRIT.

The institute has an entrepreneurship development cell, which provides training to interested students on a voluntary basis. The institute also has an incubation centre, which provides the entire infrastructure for the incubatee for two years. Rajanikanth said they are also planning to set up a seed fund soon.

One of the successful start-ups to come out of the MSRIT incubator is Gumbi Software, an education solutions provider, set up by Harsha Mahabala, a 2006 Computer Science student of MSRIT. Mahabala always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but he was planning to study business administration before setting up his own venture. “Without the support and mentoring I received at my college, it would have taken much longer to start up on my own,” said Mahabala. Today, Gumbi Software is a 13.5-crore company.

CREATING ENTREPRENEURS
While Mahabala always knew he would become an entrepreneur, for Jia Jain it was chance and not choice that made him start a chain of fine-dining vegetarian restaurants, called 1947, in Bangalore. After passing out of Jain University’s MATS Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship in 2005, Jain set up his first outlet in 2006. He said there was a constant focus on entrepreneurship at the Institute. This led him to think of entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to a corporate job.

He now has five restaurants and is eyeing a turnover of 8 crore this financial year. The Institute’s Centre for Entrepreneurship provides office space and infrastructure, mentoring and also administers a seed fund. The Centre has incubated 23 companies so far.

ENTREPRENEURS PARK
The entrepreneurial culture in non-metro locations is also pushing various institutes to build the eco-system. Coimbatore-based PSG College of Technology has set up an entrepreneurial park in association with the Department of Science & Technology and financial institutions to promote technology-based enterprise.

It has successfully graduated around 89 companies in the last 11 years out of which 60 are still in business. “The institute was a launch pad for me to not only develop the technology but take it to the market as well,” said G Rammohan, who did his masters in material science and business administration from PSG.

Rammohan, who incubated his firm Vestige Technologies at PSG in 2007, provides biometric and electronic tagging technology solutions for tracking assets, jewellery and manpower. The 20-employee firm, which has bagged many contracts from government agencies and the private sector, has reached a revenue of over 1 crore.

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET
This focus on creating entrepreneurs is far from new. The Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) was set up in Ahmedabad in 1983, with sponsorship from financial Institutions such as IDBI Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and IFCI. The sole aim was to create new entrepreneurs and providing additional training for businessmen who are already running businesses.

“Entrepreneurship can be successfully taught like any other discipline,” said Dinesh Awasthi, director of EDI. He said EDI’s curriculum focuses on imparting knowledge, skill development and building on inherent aptitude. Awasthi said a little over 69% of EDI’s students are successfully managing their own businesses.

According to Awasthi, EDI has created “an ethical entrepreneurial mindset, coupled with entrepreneurial competencies”. For providing further support to students, IDBI, in collaboration with SIDBI, is offering collateral-free loans up to 1 crore, especially for EDI students.

MAKING, NOT RUNNING VENTURES
Career Launcher, an education service provider, has set up the Indus World School of Business (IWSB) in Noida in 2008 to bridge the gap in enterpreneurship education. While the Institute offers campus placements, the focus is on entrepreneurship and the institute has about a dozen start-ups incubating at its labs.

Ankita Gupta is one of the many IWSB students who are already running ventures. She is part of a project selling affordable sanitary napkins to women in more than 20 villages in Uttarakhand. Gupta has collaborated with a local innovator, who has developed a machine that can produce 2,000 sanitary napkins in a day.

Vipresh Sharma graduated from IWSB in 2010 and started an organic product venture, Bhagwati Herbal Agro Solutions. The venture earns around 25 lakh per annum in revenue. “Other B-schools mainly talk about how to run an organisation, but here I learnt how an organisation can be developed,” said Sharma, who is the first member in his family of farmers who has studied beyond class seventh.

ROLE OF THEORY
While experts, lecturers and students agree that practical training is important, most say that classroom-based theory also has its place in entrepreneurship education. Rohit Prasad, who heads the Centre For Entrepreneurship at Management Development Institute (MDI), is of the opinion that some basic aspects can be taught in the classroom.

“Subjects such as accounting, managing human resources and legal points to consider while setting up a company can be taught in the classroom,” said Prasad. “Classroom courses give the basic knowledge on how to create an enterprise. Practical training adds to the theory,” said Mahabala.

NOT ONLY ABOUT ENTREPRENEURS
Almost all experts concede that such education might not create entrepreneurs immediately. “It takes time for an Institute to start creating entrepreneurs,” said MDI’s Prasad. “It is wrong to expect that start-ups will quickly be created by colleges that have a focus on entrepreneurship in their curricular and extra-curricular programmes,” said Laura Parkin, CEO of NeN.

“The skills imparted in an entrepreneurship programme is useful in a regular corporate job as well,” said Rishikesha T Krishnan, professor of corporate strategy and policy at IIM Bangalore. He added that the institute, which currently has an elective in entrepreneurship, is planning to make entrepreneurial thinking a compulsory module in its flagship MBA programme.

“Entrepreneurship education still has a long way to go. We have not yet started creating a large number of good entrepreneurs,” said C Amarnath, professor-incharge of IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE). However, “those who want to become entrepreneurs will get there with or without specialised education,” he said.

With focused classroom programmes, interesting practical experience and the right support system, entrepreneurship education can give students a clearer picture of how to become successful entrepreneurs.

Open letter to MBA Aspirants: IWSB looking for young potential business leaders

Dear potential future business leader,

Indus World School of Business (IWSB), unique endeavor in business education, launched by Career Launcher group, has been recognized as one of the B-Schools to watch out for, by none other than Ravi Mathai Centre for education innovation of IIM Ahmadabad in 2010.

In just two years, IWSB has outstanding achievements to its credit. The accolades are pouring in for enabling young business managers who are entrepreneurial leaders in their own right. Have a look at the credentials in every sense –

World Recognizes:

– IIMA research study 2010 puts IWSB among the TOP 4 New-age B-schools in the country from 1600 B-schools – for innovation and B-School curriculum – “B’School sets new trends”

– IWSB student Ankita wins Cherie Blair foundation for Women -NEN young women entrepreneurs’ international award for 2010 – CBFW-NEN Awards

– IWSB students win national gold honors at Rural Marketing Association of India – Business model for rural enterprises at IIMB – IWSBians at IIM-B RMAI Competition

– NEN names IWSB as one of the TOP 7 Entrepreneurial campuses in India for the third year in a row

Placements – One of the best in any B-school: Among Top-10 in the Salary offered to fees ratio; comparable to many in the Top-20 B-schools – Placements 2010

• The best for the first batch passing out – highest 11.45L; Average 5.64L; Work-ex Avg 6.74; Freshers Avg 4.56L – Placement Highlights

• Highest number of entrepreneurs emerged from any campus in its very first year – seven (last count)

• Placements focused on young and fast growing companies that offer great amount of freedom, responsibility with accountability. Check what the entrepreneurs and bosses say about contribution of IWSB students.

Faculty – Eminent academicians; Alumni of IIMs and IVY league B-school with over a decade or two in corporate; Many practicing and Award-winning Entrepreneurs

Campus – Five acre ultra modern wireless enabled campus; Separate hostels for Boys and Girls in the vicinity of the campus – IWSB Campus Pictures

Industry Institutional interactions – Over forty business leaders / entrepreneurs / change makers who have impacted India industry, economy and society spent their precious one-day at the campus in the last one year – IWSB E-Bootcamp, E-Bootcamp Videos, My-Journey Series@IWSB

Curriculum – Intensive curriculum to stoke leadership and entrepreneurial thinking, hailed as one of the most innovative by IIMA study – Program highlights
Many students launch their entrepreneurial ventures while being in their two-year program at IWSB

The focus at IWSB is all about enabling youngsters like you to realize your potential. There are so many more things that you will discover about IWSB, if you find a little time to explore – www.iwsb.in and the blog – IWSB Blog

Programs – IWSB offers two programs in active partnership with Pondicherry University (central university constituted by parliament of India) – A ppt on IWSB, Program and Admission at a glance

• Autonomous PGPM (with Twinning MBA from Pondicherry central university) : Flagship, Industry acknowledged, intense program for those with high ambitions
• MBA-Twinning from Pondicherry university (stand alone) : for those who wish to have a good MBA with outstanding faculty and environment

What IWSB is looking for?

IWSB looks for potential leaders with all-round ability and not just high CAT/XAT scores.

• A potential 70%iler at CAT 0r 80%iler in MAT (MAT for MBA Twinning of pondicherry Univ only)
• A potential 60%iler if you are either a female candidate or exceptional in extracurricular, co-curricular or have entrepreneurial background

What is the selection process?

The selection process at IWSB is an involved process that helps the panel to evaluate the real potential and capability of the candidate. It is a process that helps the candidate too understand oneself better.

It would involve multiple criteria –

1. Past performance in academics and other areas of interest, understanding of self
2. CAT/XAT scores as stated above
3. Evaluation through personality assessment, group activity process and interview

Within a week of the process, the results will be announced. Candidate will receive the information through an e-mail, phone call and a physical offer. Within one week of the offer the candidate has to take the call and commit by paying the nominal admission fees.

How to apply? There are multiple ways of applying –

–                     Apply through simplyapply on www.careerelauncher.com;  or

–                     Go to iwsb.in; click on admissions 2011.Download the brochure and form; Fill it and deposit at CL centers with fees or courier it on the IWSB address with a DD.

–                     Go to the CL centre, procure the form physically by paying the fees fill with all required information and deposit it the Centre itself.

You can interact with students and alumni by connecting on:

Facebook – IWSB Facebook page

Linkedin – IWSB on Linkedin

iwsbchannel on youtube – IWSB on Youtube

You can download forms and apply – either from IWSB.in – ; or simplyapply on careerlauncher.com; you can pay on-line or at any of the CL centers and submit forms there itself or send it across to the IWSB address.

I will be delighted to help you achieve your career and life goals. You can connect to me on web space through http://www.sreeni.org (it has links to facebook, linkedin, youtube etc)

Wishing you a rewarding career and amazing journey of life

Love and wishes,
Sreeni

R. Sreenivasan,

Director and Facilitator, Indus World School of Business (iwsb.in)
Co-Founder, Career Launcher (I) Ltd.
www.sreeni.org

E-Bootcamp @IWSB – Eurekas, WOWs and Tête-à-têtes with Entrepreneurs and Investors

E-Bootcamp at IWSB Campus

E-Boot Camp at IWSB on Dec 4, 2010.

IWSB campus not only wore a festive look but also had many eager learners from various institutions and corporate who were there to listen, interact, participate, share their ideas and seek opinions and advise on their ideas.

It was an amazing day the budding entrepreneurial aspirants for sure, but the dozen wizened entrepreneurs and investors, who took time off to spend their precious time to be at the event, were left inspired by the eagerness of the students and entrepreneurial aspirants.

There were three panel discussions and interactions followed by a session by Sreeni – “Think Big, Start Small”, that focused on breaking the myths about ‘starting a business with sophisticated ideas and big money that we want’

The first of the panel discussion had three eminent personalities – Girish Batra (Alum IIMA), Founder, NetAmbit; Vivek Agarwal (Alum IIMC), Founder, Liquid and eGurucool; and Gagan Kumar (Alum IIMB), Accel Partners,  representing the world of ‘investors’. The session was moderated by Girish Batra.

The second panel had Shantanu Prakash (Alum IIMA), founder Educomp; Gautam Puri (Alum IIMB) co-founder CL;Sreeni (Alum IIMB) co-founder CL and Director IWSB;

The third panel had  Vivek Bihani (Alum IIMB) and Co-founder Magic Software and Founder InSync advisors and Arindam (Alum IIML) Director IWSB and co-founder CL

Here in is the capture of the first panel discussion on “Opportunities – discovering one”

The inaugural address with the first panel – Girish, Gagan and Vivek

Moderator – Girish : Q. How do you create an Idea? How do you think about being an entrepreneur? What is the motivation of becoming one?

Me too challenges are higher. Thinking need to be unique. How do you chase about going ahead.

Capital and manpower are challenges in the initial stages. Examples are few, resources are limited, less control on resources, capital, challenges you go through; can you anticipate some of them, how do you bring risk mitigation;

Gagan –

Discount whatever I say, since I am only a facilitating person. Girish and Vivek have created business

Why become an entrepreneur in the first place? Even if you have taken a call, it is a fashion today to say I want to be an entrepreneur!!

Vivek –

That is the basic question. It cannot be over emphasized. Why are we getting into this?

I was reading a quote – “Lot of start-ups do not succeed. Those who succeed are the happiest people in the world” –

You have got to select a problem to solve. And if you do, you will make huge monies. You are wondering what next. It is worth taking a shot. Not having to say later on, why have I not taken the shot? I never really wanted to do it, because never wanted to say to my children – “ I did not try”

Gagan –

I was at IIMB a couple of weeks ago at an entrepreneurial event – you need to evaluate first why you want to get into it. It is going to be a grind.  70 Lakhs additional people joining Facebook every month, what could have been the initial motivation? It is paying dividends now, after all the grind put the people behind.

You can go to corporate, enjoy life, 5-9 job. So if you are convinced of a job you should go there. Go only when you are going to enjoy..

I also look at Satya – Way back in 1993, I thought as much as many others ‘Eh kya karega, padhayega ‘(what is this fellow going to do? Teach?). We all were ridiculing in those days. Look at today, we think “arey yaar hame kyon yeh vision nahin tha!”

You need to be prepared for a number of challenges …I am sure Satya will have hundreds of stories to tell..

Girish –

When I look back, in 1999, when I took this challenge.. I felt I was looking for happiness. Lot of times our actions are determined by what we do…  Now 4000 people strong, may be 7000 people strong pretty soon..

It feels good to see giving back to the society.

So questions are – What is your aspiration? What you are looking at? I was speaking to a friend from IIMA. I realized that his aspiration is not to scale up. If you really want to do business, your path should be clear – the actions you take, the plan you want to follow.. Yes, luck does play some role too…

What is the end-goal in your mind and start working towards it. What would you be like when you are 40-45?

Moderator – Girish : What do you think makes an Idea succeed?

Gagan –

Team, market size of the idea, customers tracking, scalability, certainly differentiating factors, what works, who pays for it… so many questions to be explored

Last 2 years we have done 20 odd investments at the seed stage.

At most of the companies what they are today was not what they started with..

• A Social networking company, started off well… but today it is SAS platform for recruiters.

No idea is bad. It may not be fundable initially but if the idea can make some segment happy about using the product or service, I am sure the Idea will succeed eventually.

Vivek –

Another way of what they are sharing is..

There is a lifestyle business. One gentleman came and was speaking to me. He is aggregation of courses for people. Do you want your son to take over your business at some time? He said yes. Perhaps he is in a lifestyle business… it is a family-centric approach.

Pursing one idea aggressively. You may want to corporatize. If it works fine, else you may to shut shop. In this model you may have partners and in terms of product and people may grow huge..

No bad ideas, as Gagan mentioned. When I started eGurucool, we prepared a vision of what we wanted to do. We spoke to investment bankers. We were discouraged from raising funds, since everyone asked for documentation of idea and plan … How can we send it across, someone may copy it. It was stupid, we realized later. How will anyone fund without sharing your ideas?

There were 75 companies that were working on the same idea. We raised capital and we executed better. If you are the only one working on an idea, perhaps then the idea may not be with potential. Google guys were willing to sell the idea to yahoo and but yahoo thought it was too expensive and not worth it… now look at google, when they executed the idea!

Good Idea with bad execution does not succeed. But a bad idea with good execution can take it long.

Look at what your interests are.

Two of my friends set up an HR firm. Why will anyone fund you?  Software platform that will reduce the work; I had asked how will you do it without a techie.

Steve jobs said “Steve wozniac; I got a techie to be my co-founder”

So first know what you really like and what you do not have and get people with that expertise…

Girish

Execution is the key to success. It is a lot about being practical, pragmatic and you should have your eyes and ears close to the ground. You need to have the ability to learn fast and quick. Name of the game is execution.

If you have an idea where there are already a few players, kindly find gaps – product side, services side….

Always go to people who have experience in your domain to get their opinions. Bouncing off with people. Do not be hesitant to share idea. The real success is in execution and not in just idea. Idea has to be good, but execution can make a killing out of even a mundane idea, else we kill a brilliant idea.

E-Bootcamp at IWSB Campus – The audience and the arena

Vivek

Try out a few ideas in the campus itself. Pool 1000 rupees and create small businesses of selling ICECREAMS, TSHIRTS etc. a lot of learning happens through…

Girish

Challenges are plenty. Journey is going to be bumpy. You will not have the support systems you want. You will have to be aware and try how to mitigate the challenges early.

Challenges will be on multiple fold – Supply as well as Demand side ..

• sourcing raw material
• people : how do you attract talent; you wear all the caps initially, but how do you attract the people…
• market side
• demand side
• regulatory compliance

You will have bad and good times. How do you take care of personal and emotional challenges.

Moderator – Girish : How will you take care of challenges?

Vivek –

I will share from my experiences –

You have to be convinced and passionate about your idea… you have to be stubborn headed about it. Think that the whole world is wrong…What is the ideal way of building business?

If I were to do a business today, let us take online community business.. If I were a good techie, I will get a good marketing guy or otherwise. I will spend some good money and put the website. I will outsource or get people on contract. Get good feedback from early users and then reach out to the angel investors..

Have a couple of co-founders, with supplementary and complementary skills. Then  keep the costs low

Make sure your expenses are behind the cash flows. Kindly keep raising capital, so that you can move faster

Getting into execution – You will have to be the chief techie, chief peon…. That is the part of the early growth process. It is not going to be easy.

There are a set of trade-offs, it helps you to understand which way you are going..

Let us say you are selling HR software…making recruitment process easier. Girish, may say I need finance also, I am tempted to get that too…It is always good to get your core competence and what you want to build… stick to it..

People – when you hire people, we get equity and … ‘

‘Hire for Attitude, and train for skills’ we need people who are flexible and dynamic. As you grow you need people with grey hair… Getting one good guy than four compromises is better. You may need to even pay him more that what you make for yourself, but just do it.

The eminent visitors sharing a laughter

Gagan –

In campus we hang on with same friends. Try to create teams that are very diverse. Get the complementary skills..

Ego: Who will be the CEO. Whom should I speak to? He should be outgoing, good sales man, he has to be the face of the company; The one who grinds should be COO. Being humble is one of the critical traits we should look for..

Q&A

We start with our own 2-4 lacs and I do not want to go to anyone else if I want to get 10-15 lacks they may give, with many stings attached. What does the panel have to say about it

Panel –

If you want to have 10 lacs, I think you will have to get it from friends. If you need 40-50 lacs then you may enthuse investors. Get 20-25 lacs from angels; get things going

Prove your idea with your own money before you can convince others…

I feel you need to get rid off “Strings Attached”.

Size of the market? How do you evaluate…

You need to get the size of the market certainly for any idea.. Even if you are coming out with a completely new product, you should understand the need and wants. Estimate what will satisfy and how much will the demand be. Do a survey that will give reasonable data to crunch..

After starting  business after investing 20-30 lakhs and feel I need more money?

I started my business with 1 Lakh. It is a complete misnomer to feel that you need very big investments.

It is important to distinct between personal capital and capital for growth

How do you get on to the good execution?

1. Two kids – Flipcart – selling books online – we said kaun kharidta hai

• Showed traffic and transactions
• Then we took the plunge
• Entry barriers – A large book store said they already had gone online and they are multiple times of Flipcart
• But in a couple of months Flipcart became a multiple of the stores
• Good search engine work

• So PROOF OF concept is important at the same time keep your eye on costs, that is the key.

• Does being introvert not help in setting up a business?

1. 1. It is not about idea, it is all about execution..
   2. No body is going to fund us only on idea..
   3. You need to talk about your idea to a host of others
   1. i.      Customers
      ii.      People to recruit

• One team that has won many b-plan competitions but has not started the enterprise yet… Conviction and willingness to slog is the key

So if you are an introvert, but have ideas and are willing to work hard, find someone who will front-end your interactions with external world. Because networking and interacting will take your “proof of concept” to the outside world.

(the interaction is not complete, as I had to rush out of the hall).. Will write the other panel interaction in a separate blog

Kindly leave your comments or write to sreeni@iwsb.in